Pattern and Collage

Supplies:

White drawing paper

Black felt tip pens

Magazines

Glue sticks

I loved using this project to reinforce the concept of line and shape with my Art I students. It is basic enough that students who have had little or no art experience can be successful. Students who have had art before or have done a lot of drawing on their own were not boxed into an “easy” project.

I got the idea for this project from another teacher’s blog. Since this was my first year teaching high school art, I spent a lot of time scouring the internet to find ideas for projects that are appropriate for an Art I class.

For the sketching portion of this project I had my students fold a paper into eighths and then cut off two sections so that they had six small rectangles. They filled each of those rectangles with a different zentangle design. I explained to them that since zentagles are created with the purpose of sharing, they could search for ideas of zentangles to practice or they could create their own pattern. Having a small library of patterns helped them to focus on where they wanted to place their patterns on the final artwork, instead of worrying about what to draw.